5 Time Management Tips for Small-Business Owners

The responsibility of being a small-business owner places intense demands on your time and attention. Optimal use of resources may represent the difference between success and failure for your company. The following are a few general rules that will help you improve your time management capabilities.

1. Prioritize and Limit Your Activity: Forbes Young Entrepreneurs Council contributor Kalin Kassabov suggested that the best way to get some time back into your day may be to acknowledge which activities can be skipped. Small-business owners can't be everywhere at once, and some tasks just aren't worth the time they consumer. There's no shame in saying "no" to doing something that doesn't make sense.

2. Leave Time for the Unexpected: The U.S. Small Business Administration has an extra recommendation for the scheduling process. Rather than booking all your available time, you should leave roughly one-fourth of your day free, because unexpected issues tend to crop up. If you fill your days with things to do, some may end up forgotten, causing problems for future days.

3. Pick Your Tools: There are plenty of apps on the market that claim to improve small-business owner time management. Using one of these products may be a great way to get on track, but there's no need to overcomplicate matters. Kassabov noted that when a pen-and-notebook organization system works for you, there's no need to abandon it. Trying out time-saving tools is fine, but you shouldn't feel obligated to use them.

4. Delegate Intelligently: According to the SBA, there's an art to delegating tasks to your employees. Workers should always know why they are being given a particular role so they can prioritize the work effectively. The SBA also noted that no matter how much you delegate, you'll still have plenty of responsibilities.

5. Work with Trusted Partners: Organizations such as Lightning Labels exist to take on the burden of common business tasks and make them quicker and easier for you.